India.
India's first blind television newscaster.

January 11, 2006.
NewKerala.com - Ernakulam,Kerala,India.

Nagpur: A gifted but determined blind girl in Nagpur may never see what
appears on the
television
screen, but she has become India's first blind television newscaster and is
now looking forward to scaling new heights.

At 21, Amruta Bhople is a television newscaster with BCN, a local news
channel in Nagpur. The channel had organised auditions for newsreadersl to
which
Amruta, a gold medallist in
English
literature, went with trepidation.

"The obstacles were that since everyone else in society holds biases and
doubts the capabilities of a visually challenged person, I too would be hit
by
the occasional bug of self-doubt. I would pause to wonder if I could really
make it even though I had phenomenal interest. So, when the BCN channel
called
for screen tests, I applied but also feared if I would make it at all. But
right from the first test onwards I realised that I could and would make it
to the top and also do it better than most," said Amruta.

Amrita reads her news scripts in Braille.

Amruta's mother Chhaya Bhople has stood by her through all her trials in
life. As a mother Chhaya feels that Amruta's success is a result of
determination.
She is not overtly worried about Amruta's future, as she believes that
Amruta who never says die will succeed in life.

"I would not call the impediments that Amrita faced as huge calamities. Had
it not been for these obstacles she would have not been such a fighter, a
winner.
She continuously challenges herself to excel and pits her capabilities
against the sighted so she has no mean goals. She exudes a lot of interest
in her
studies
and she also stood in the merit list amongst general candidates in her 10th
matriculation and plus two examinations," said Chhaya of Amruta's
endeavours.

The young woman also plays
chess,
sings old melodies with as much ilan as she lilts the remixed numbers. Her
next goal is to read news for some national channel or any of the popular
private
television channels.

India is a country of more than a billion people where millions of disabled
live on the fringes of society, struggling to make a living.

Critics say the government still grappling with massive poverty and trying
to provide basic needs such as clean water and
education
to the populace cannot chart proper rehabilitation programmes for its
differently abled sections.

Government officials say that about two percent of the population have
physical or sensory disabilities that include visual, speech, hearing and
movement
problems but volunteers working in the field put the figure at five to six
percent of the population, or 50 to 60 million people.

The Persons With Disabilities Act of 1995 says that India's disabled are
entitled to a host of rights that would go a long way in enriching the lives
of
its disabled, already harassed by nature's follies.

But more than a decade after the act was passed, few public places and
institutions are disabled-friendly. Virtually no buses are
wheel chair
accessible, the blind still cannot cross roads on their own and the deaf
face a host of problems.